scroll down to see if work on your Shtetl is underway or how you can start a Shtetl CO-OP

As part of its mission to index all available Jewish records of Poland, JRI-Poland has undertaken the massive task of indexing the Jewish vital records for 600 towns in the LDS (Mormon) microfilms. All or some of the records for 520 towns have now been indexed.

The invaluable contribution of the JRI-Poland database for Jewish family research, evidenced by the numerous testimonies of our fellow genealogists, prompted the JRI-Poland board to seek ways to expedite the work of the project. As a result, JRI-Poland created the Shtetl CO-OP initiative.

Shtetl CO-OPs consist of groups of volunteers with a common interest in an ancestral town. Under the leadership of a Shtetl CO-OP leader, each JRI- Poland Shtetl CO-OP team obtains digital images of the index pages in the LDS films for their town(s) and enters these indices into an Excel file. The standard format (template) and Step by Step Instruction guide is available from JRI-Poland. Completed files are reviewed by the project's transliteration coordinator and then uploaded to the JRI-Poland database.

The Shtetl CO-OP team approach is particularly invaluable for those cities and towns which had large Jewish populations and for which there are many microfilms.

Starting a Shtetl CO-OP to index the records for other towns:
JewishGenners wanting easy access to the indices of vital records for their towns are being urged to form
their own Shtetl CO-OPs. JRI-Poland will provide the procedures for photocopying, transliteration where
necessary, and data entry. Here's how to get your Shtetl CO-OP underway:

Start by identifying other researchers with a common interest in the town (the JewishGen Family Finder
lists these researchers), agree on a project leader or - better still - don't wait for someone else
to accept the responsibility, you take the initiative (sound familiar!) and get your
Shtetl CO-OP going.... this week!

JRI-Poland is extending a special incentive to those who accept the responsibility of becoming Shtetl CO-OP
project leaders. By agreeing to coordinate the entire effort to index all their town's records in the
LDS microfilms, these volunteers will be granted official access to the resulting database of indices
to these records. This offer will be extended to towns which have only been partially indexed.
To view a list of the towns/records already on the JRI-Poland database,
click the "database contents" button on the JRI-Poland website.

Through unusual circumstances, the Jewish Historical Institute, Warsaw, has come into possession of the
Jewish birth, marriage and death registers for Zareby Koscielne for the years 1808 - 1809 and
1840 to 1939! Using these and other years in the LDS microfilms (1810 - 1839), JRI-Poland has created
a complete searchable index of the vital records from 1808 to 1939. This is unparalled in Jewish vital
records research for any Polish town. Almost 10,000 records for this town are now available through the
JRI-Poland search engine.

Because of marriages between families in surrounding towns and shtetels, the Zareby Koscielne vital records
will have references to SURNAMES from Zambrow, Ostrow Maz., Nur, Brok, Kosov, Czyzew, Ciechanowiec,
Przasnysz, and other former Lomza Gubernia locations.

For more information on becoming a Shtetl CO-OP leader,
please contact Stanley Diamond

Surviving records less than 100 years old are held in the Civil Records Offices
(Urzad Stanu Cywilnego) of each town.

For information on the 20th century records available for your town, visit the
Routes to Roots
Foundation website, click on the 'SEARCH DATABASE' button (on the right side)
and enter the town name. Look for the town name in the Repository/City column of
the search results. There are typically links to lists of available births, marriage and death records for the town.

Note, however, the Routes to Roots Foundation database may indicate turn of the
century records that have already been transferred to the appropriate branch of
the Polish State Archives where they can be indexed for the JRI-Poland database.

JRI-Poland is an independent non-profit tax-exempt Organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code.

Under special arrangement, the JRI-Poland web site, mailing list, and database are hosted by JewishGen